


One Short Day

by OpienYourMind



Category: Fire Emblem Echoes: Mou Hitori no Eiyuu Ou | Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia
Genre: Alm and Celica are overworked ruling a country, Cuddling, F/M, Fluff, i'm a slut for sleepy cuddles, someone save them
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-11
Updated: 2018-05-11
Packaged: 2019-05-05 02:46:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14607576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OpienYourMind/pseuds/OpienYourMind
Summary: Alm and Celica have been feeling the weight of their responsibilities lately. Fortunately, even kings and queens are entitled to some time to themselves once in a while.





	One Short Day

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this because I wanted to do more Alm/Celica stuff, and I love their outfits from the Echoes OST box, so I decided to write them taking a day off. Partially inspired by a friend's Discord quote: "you can't recognize me these shades are Gucci- Celica probably."

Alm slumped against the door of the reception hall. The last guest had only left minutes ago, finally ending a day of painful negotiation. He couldn’t believe that a tiny piece of disputed territory on what had once been the Zofia-Rigel border was now the subject of so much arguing. 

“Gods, I never thought I’d rather be back fighting for my life,” he groaned to the empty room. Talking to himself was a habit Alm had picked up after the war’s end- he was so used to Celica being by his side, or being able to speak to him like she had with the Rigelian sage’s magic, that speaking to the air had become a regular occurrence. 

After the trek back to his and Celica’s rooms near the grand balcony of Zofia Castle, Alm carelessly tossed the sheaf of deeds and contracts, along with the quill in his hand, onto a side table. The royal chambers were beautiful by any standards, with high windows perfectly angled to let the setting sun in and thick red carpets with subtle gold designs incorporating Mila’s star-shaped brand, perfect- if flowery- matches for the one on Celica’s right hand, embroidered around the edges, but he was too exhausted to admire the dappling of light against the sitting room’s wall. He caught sight of a pile of papers on an end table and grumbled quietly, resigned to another couple hours of wading through work. 

Alm so wished they could delegate more of the tedious work to the castle staff and attendants- he fondly recalled the few days where he had been able to walk through the gardens with Celica, or watch the training of the united army with Forsyth and the others. They hadn’t been able to make more than one trip back to Ram since their coronation, and it had only been for a few days. He quickly shook his head, remembering how the later Zofian kings had refused to shoulder their burdens and the crushing weight it had placed on the people- there would be time to fantasize later. 

He sighed and lifted the stack off the table and walked over to a large wooden desk, which the two of them usually used for writing letters or reading together. Unfortunately, it didn’t look as though they would be able to finish reading the Restoration King’s saga any time soon- Celica was still at the Temple of Mila the last he’d heard, and it didn’t look as though the rebuilding was going smoothly. At worst, she had told him, she would be there a week, but it had already been four days and the random springing up of Terrors from deep under the temple grounds, though they had become much fewer and farther between since the fall of the Duma Faithful, still hadn’t been entirely quelled.

The desk had a picture-perfect view of the rolling hills and scattered forest in the countryside to the north of the castle. After setting down the documents with another gusty sigh, Alm sat heavily down in the desk chair and gazed out at the view, chin in his hands. His eyes steadily drifted upward and to the northeast, as if by staring hard enough he could catch a glimpse of Celica, perhaps talking with the clerics, or even looking back in his direction.

He shook his head again to re-focus himself. Skimming through the papers as quickly as he could, he determined which ones needed to be taken care of and which could wait. A request for more knights to be diverted toward the training of the new army- important, but not a top priority. The sluice gates in the center of the continent being closed- too stupid to consider. More land near a few farming villages being repurposed for food production- he could take care of that now. 

Alm opened a desk drawer and picked out a quill. After reading through the request, he scratched out a few parts that seemed like too much. He and Celica had sensed a common idea around the more greedy nobles when they had started to receive requests for outlandish amounts of gold for vaguely stated “conservation purposes,” and during a banquet their suspicions had been confirmed when a guest had gotten too drunk and slurred to his friend, “ _ The King and Queen are just kids! Ask them for anything!” _

Alm finished crossing through the troubling lines and signed at the bottom. Looking up, he realized just how little light was left in the sky. 

“This is so boring, Celica. Do you want to swap for a day? I’d love to help you find the source of those revenants.” Alm chuckled to himself. _Gods, I’m tired._ _I can probably just leave the rest of these papers for tomorrow…_

 

-

 

“Alm.”

“Mnuurhg…”

“Alm, wake up.”

“Huh?”

Alm put a hand down on the top of the desk and peeled his face away from where it had stuck to the wood. He scratched his head vigorously and looked up, trying to find what had woken him all of a sudden.

“Surprised?” Celica, kneeling on the floor next to his chair, grinned and tilted her head slightly to wait for his reaction.

“Celica!” Alm’s face broke out in an equally wide grin and he pulled her onto his lap and into a tight hug, their separation taking its toll. “I thought you weren’t going to be back for another three days!”

“There was only so much I could do.” Celica squeezed Alm tightly in return. “They did need someone who could use holy magic, but they had already narrowed it down to a couple sites where the source could be. All I needed to do was say ‘stand back’ and hit some spots with light, and the magic took care of the rest on its own.”

“And the reorganization of the priesthood? You said you needed to supervise that too, didn’t you?”

“Yes. I’ve placed Irma- that cleric who you spoke to during our ceremony- at the head of the hierarchy. We’re going to have to talk about the dragons themselves in the future, and the question of continuing to worship them, but things are fine in the interim.”

“Oh, yeah.” Alm recalled the soft-spoken priestess, who had bowed deeply when Celica introduced her to him. “Do you feel she’s up to leading the priesthood? She didn’t seem too comfortable in large groups.”

“No,” Celica conceded, “She’s not, but her role consists more of decision-making than day-to-day work. Anyway, how have things been here?” She released Alm, shifted so she sat across his legs, and studied his face.

Alm lowered his head toward the pile on the desk, allowing a deeply sarcastic grin to flicker across his face. “Never better.”

Celica groaned quietly. “It really doesn’t get any easier, does it? How big is the pile of things I need to sign?”

“Oh, I’ll show you the room we set aside for them in the morning.” He grinned for real this time, and Celica laughed to herself. 

“Speaking of, do you want to turn in? The ride back to the castle was exhausting.”

“Thought you’d never ask.” As Alm made to rise, Celica slid off his lap to stand upright, but she stumbled slightly.

Celica’s movement was small, but it didn’t escape Alm’s notice. “Hey, are you all right?” he asked gently, placing a hand on her shoulder.

“Oh…” She paused, covering her mouth and yawning widely. “I think I’m just tired from walking up here. Standing is odd after a long ride, isn- hey!” 

Before she could finish, Alm leaned down to catch Celica under her knees and back and, with a grunt, hoisted her into his arms. Celica caught her breath and locked her arms around his neck, turning her head away from him slightly. Alm could have sworn he saw her face flush slightly in the dim light. The two of them had been “together” for about two months- they had agreed to refer to their relationship that way after refusing the nobility’s behests to get married for the time being. Even those who dug for the deepest dirt on any relationship had been forced to see that Alm and Celica loved each other, but the two were still awkward. Alm for his part had stammered and blushed when Celica suggested sleeping in the same bed last month, although he gave in quickly, so while no one saw any trace of it in negotiations or at the table, they were still very much kids around one another.

Alm carried Celica bridal-style through their suite and into the bedroom. He sat her down slowly on the bed, and she sank onto her back gratefully. 

“You want to change?” Alm asked, stifling a yawn as the tiredness that had hit him earlier began returning in earnest. 

“No,” Celica mumbled from her prone position, her brown eyes half-closed already. She gestured toward the simple white skirt and long-sleeved top she wore. “I’ll change, ahh-” she yawned again- “in the morning. Let’s just go to sleep…”

Alm nodded in agreement. Not bothering to remove his tunic or pants, he climbed in on Celica’s other side and pulled the sheets up around their shoulders. Celica shifted backward, bumping against him, and he wrapped his arms around her waist.

“Mm… Celica?”

“Hmm?” She turned her head toward him as far as she could, blinking sleepily. Gods, she was so cute when she was tired.

“Want to go out tomorrow?”

“Out, where?”

“Into the capital?” Alm continued as the arbitrary suggestion grew in his mind. “Let’s just take a day off, walk around together, no need to show who we are.” He pressed a kiss to the back of Celica’s neck, and she hummed in contentment. 

She rolled over to face him, her eyes crinkling into a smile. “I’d like that. I’ve missed you for a long time.”

“We saw each other four days ago,” Alm replied, her response too much for his tired brain to wonder over.

Celica giggled and hugged him tightly, pressing her head into his neck. When she spoke, it was a gentle vibration against his collarbone. “I’ve missed the you who doesn’t need to feel the world on his shoulders. The you I get to see when we go into the gardens, or to Ram. Because-” she paused, squeezing him more tightly for a moment- “-I miss that time when we lived in the village, with Gray and Kliff and Faye and Grandfather. That’s the side of you I get to see when we do that.” 

Alm smiled, running his fingers through her silky red hair. “I miss you too.” The words came easily. “I’m so happy every time we get to see each other like that. I miss Celica.” They spent too much time together as Alm I and Anthiese, he thought to himself. “Tomorrow, let’s be Alm and Celica, just for a while.”

“Sure…” Celica trailed off. She lazily dragged her hand up to meet his, hooking her pinky finger around his. Alm pulled the heavy blanket over both of them, and they drifted off, contentedly reliving the ten-year-old memory of reading their mythology book by Mycen’s fireplace.

**Author's Note:**

> Ugh, I'm sorry guys, but at this point I've gone too long without thinking about it and lost the desire to write this one out. I do probably want to write more Alm/Celica, or Echoes in general, in the future, but for now I have to take a break.


End file.
